IN the end, he simply didn’t have any more to give. Bloodied, thanks to a cut that had opened above his right eye, and bruised, thanks to the 12 rounds of relentless pounding he had just survived, Stuart Hall didn’t even have the energy to throw his hands into the air as the final bell sounded. Every ounce of effort had been spent.

He glanced to veteran trainer Paddy Lynch in his corner, and the pair’s expression confirmed they knew he hadn’t quite done enough. Boxing is the most unforgiving of sporting pursuits, and having given absolutely everything in an attempt to claim his second world title, Darlington’s greatest ever fighter was about to experience crushing disappointment. The pain of the verdict would merely accentuate the throbbing hurt inflicted by the blows that rained down from Randy Caballero.

For the second time in ten months, Hall had been involved an epic. This sort of barnstorming brawl is only supposed to happen sporadically, yet Hall, a fighter whose heart is an even more effective weapon than his fists, has made it his speciality.

Last December, he was involved in a similarly brutal contest with Vusi Malinga that ended in him being crowned as the North-East’s first world champion for almost two decades. Malinga had been a talented opponent whose reserves of energy and spirit matched Hall’s. The big difference this time around was that Caballero could also boast a hefty touch of class in his arsenal, and for all that Hall tried to pierce his opponent’s defences, it was the unbeaten American who consistently landed the more telling blows.

Not fight-ending ones admittedly, but enough shots to impress the judges, whose final scorecards were ridiculously one-sided in Caballero’s favour, and with sufficient power and finesse to ensure that Hall was never really able to dictate as he would have liked.

As a result, the 34-year-old suffered his second successive defeat in the bear-pit of a world-title showdown. But whereas June’s loss to Paul Butler was a huge disappointment given Hall’s failure to produce anywhere near his best, there was no embarrassment in losing to an opponent who could well go on to dominate the bantamweight division for many years to come.

“Caballero’s a good fighter,” said Hall, while reflecting on the fight as he prepared to fly back to the North-East yesterday morning. “He’s a class act. He took some really heavy punches from me, and he showed he could adapt by changing the way he fought.

“I spoke to his camp after the fight and they said they thought they were going to blitz me from the inside. When that didn’t happen by about the sixth round, they were telling him to get away from me and punch more from distance. That’s because they knew I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Fair play though, he fought well. I’m disappointed with the way the scoring went, but I can’t be too unhappy with the way I fought. Caballero’s easily the best fighter I’ve ever been in the ring with, so I guess that probably makes that the best I’ve ever fought.

“I couldn’t have done any more, and that’s the main thing. Caballero knows he’s been in a hell of a fight and I’ve got to be happy with the way I performed. I’m just sick of people texting me to tell me it was a much closer fight than it was judged.”

While all three judges had Caballero ahead at the final bell, it was the scoring of Englishman Steve Gray, who judged the contest 118-110 in the American’s favour, that left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Even accepting that Hall was knocked down in the second round, there was simply no way that Caballero was eight points superior and while the contrast in styles was always going to leave the final verdict open to an interpretation of technique, Hall was much closer to his opponent than Gray in particular opined.

Caballero was a technically cleaner fighter, with his slick combinations and searing uppercuts causing problems in the opening rounds. The speed of his punching caused problems, although when Hall was knocked down midway through the second round, it was a relatively innocuous looking right jab that did the damage.

“It was a strange one,” said Hall. “It just sort of caught me off balance and in the wrong position. It came from nowhere really but maybe it stuck in the judges’ minds and made them think I was on the back foot after that.

“It was never going to cause me too many problems, and I recovered pretty well and didn’t look in trouble again afterwards. But maybe in the end it’s the knockdown that’s cost me. That’s probably been the only real difference between us in the fight.”

Having hauled himself off the canvas to regroup and see out the second, Hall gradually found his rhythm and the middle section of the fight was extremely closely contested.

There were a number of occasions when Hall, fighting from the middle of the ring, pinned Caballero to the ropes, but he was never quite able to unleash the kind of telling blow that might have altered the complexion of the contest.

Caballero deserves credit for that, and having blitzed his way through some of his previous bouts, the Nicaragua-born champion, who now boasts a 22-0 record, proved he possesses a decent chin and an ability to soak up some powerful blows.

Hall needed to finish with a flourish to have any chance of reclaiming his title, but instead it was Caballero who regrouped to dominate the final two rounds, with the speed of his work increasing again despite the ravages of fatigue.

The final bell brought scenes of exhaustion, although it was Caballero’s camp who immediately lifted their fighter into the air to signal their expectation of success. Hall greeted the verdict with a rueful shake of his head, but after exiting the ring a few moments later, he too was hauled aloft by some of the 40 or 50 North-East fans who added plenty of colour and atmosphere to proceedings. He might not be a world champion any more, but his status as a local sporting hero is secure.

“All in all, it was a good experience,” said Hall. “My training camp was fantastic, and I think the way I performed vindicated my decision to switch trainer. That was after six weeks – imagine if I’d been training like that for the last year.

“It’s been a bit different coming over to Monaco to fight for the world title. It didn’t end as I wanted, but I’ll be back to do it again. This isn’t the end of the story.”